More User Reviews:

Ridgeway Warm Welcome has a medium, cream-colored head, a chestnut brown, semi-clear appearance, and some lacing left behind. The aroma is a nice combination of dark sugar, toasted malt, grain, and bread crust. Taste is similar, with a mellow, mild hop bitterness at the end. Mouthfeel is medium, and Ridgeway Warm Welcome finishes crisp, refreshing, and very easy going for a 6% beer. RJT

Pours into my glass a dark copper color with a fizzy white head that lingers for a bit and then fades. Good clarity as well. Aromas start out with a nice light roast and some toasted malt accents. Nutty notes throughout along with a mellow fruit tone. Slight sweetness.

First sip brings smooth crisp malts upfront, lightly toasted and semi-sweet as well. Nutty flavors roll across the palate with a fruity undertone as well. Lingering nutty roast on the back end. A well balanced, easy drinking ale.

Mouthfeel is light, crisp and smooth. Good carbonation and easy drinking. Makes for a good session beer. Overall, a tasty English brown ale with well balanced flavor profile. Would have this one again sometime.

Pours a dirty yellow/brown with a white head. The aroma is not good, reminding me of an English Brown Ale mixed with an American Macro Lager. The flavor is about like the aroma, with some butty character and some bitter English hops. Thin mouthfeel and highly carbonated. Avoid this one.

Pours a transparent brown with a creamy off white head. The head dissipates to a thin film with some lacing. No strong aroma, maybe some carmel and faint roasted malts. Some carmel like malts, but roasted malts dominate. Flavors are faint though. Medium body. Decent, but a little boring over all. This beer is not worth it for the price. I got this in the holiday pack with three other Ridgeway beers, I hope the others are better.

Clear brown color with fairly bright highlights. White head diminishes in about half a minute. Dripping ring laces. Sweet smell, pear and vanilla impressions shine through, a bit of over-cloying sacharine. Carbonation is about medium, mouthfeel is closer to light but the beer covers the tongue well. Taste is neutral and agreeable -- in a world of extreme beers -- if maybe slightly unmemorable. Brown sugar maltiness, a touch of sweeter honey and no assertion of a hop profile. Smooth finish, no real off notes and a slight sense of light alcohol warming. Pleasant without being distinctive, overall nicely meets the style and is easily drinkable when this is what strikes your mood. Frankly, its better executed than some of the more hyped Ridgeway brews.

Pours a crystal clear amber in the body with a slightly off white head, forms thick fine speckled lacing. Aroma offers some semi sweet toasted malts, cereal grains, and herbal earthy minimal hops in the backend. Flavor is middle of the road nice bready malts, semi sweet balanced with earthy hops, soft nutty character. Mouthfeel has ample carbonation a bit much, but overall what can I say these novelty beer labels are decent easy drinking beers middle of the road but they sell like hotcakes every holiday season, medium bodied at best. Overall I'm not sorry I tried this one very drinkable solid brewed beer labeled as a winter nut brown tastes more like a well constructed amber ale.

It's sort of a light-medium brown and some lighter highlights filter through; somewhat pale for a brown, but still brown. There's nothing that stands out in the appearance. There's a bit of head that fades to foam with some rings and legs of khaki lacing left behind.
As a brown, this is pretty representative of the style, with some nut and toast. A somewhat stronger earthy hops than many browns showcase is evident, but it's not exceptionally malty. In my mind, a well-hopped brown is great, but malts should still be the foundation. This goes the other way.
Per style, it shouldn't be a bruiser, and it's not. It does have a good, nutty flavor to it with a toasty edge, but grains tend to detract as they come out front.
The body is about medium but just a touch thin in the feel. Otherwise it's just a nip crisp with low carbonation and a bit of smoothness coming out toward the middle.
There are better examples, but this is still pretty good beer.

A nice clear orange-amber in the glass with a decent full finger of white foam that leaves a lot of sticky lace in it's wake.

Aromas are buttery-nuts mixed with the sweet roasted amber malt. A bit of a fuggle hop aroma as the malts and nuts fade.

Taste is lightly toasted sweet amber malt followed with a refreshing bitterness that adds to the drying before the hops take over. Extra hoppy and extra hot for an English Brown but it all balances well to the spice in the brew.

This pours a reddish brown with a 2 finger head that disappears very quickly.The smell has a strong biscuit and yeast smell,but not the nuttiness you would expect.The taste is similar to the smell except for the warm alcohol aftertaste.This has a pretty good kick for a brown ale.The m/f is light and this does have a watery aftertaste.The flavors do not mix well in this beer.This is an average beer that has a great label,I would stick to a number of other winter seasonals.

550ml bottle .Pours a cloudy brown with a quickly fading thin beige head. Aroma of caramel malt, yeast some dark fruity esters. Taste of caramel malt, yeast, mild dark fruit and nutty flavors. Palate is a medium body with mild carbonation. Finish is sweet caramel malt, yeast, some brown sugar, dark fruits with a bit of a nutty ending. Not the best in class but overall a good flavorful and pleasant drinking brew.

A: Into a pint poured a deep amber with burnt orange hues and a thin, creamy beige colored head that quickly dissipated almost immediately after the pour. Visible effervesce was nearly non-existent.

S: The nose portrayed a fresh roastediness along with a caramel toasted sweetness. Also adding to the mix was some warm honey and maple syrup. The overall feeling was light to medium in strength.

T: The flavor opens up with a light smokiness of rich creamy caramel chew and toffee sweetening things up. A warm nuttiness of pecan and cola nuts adds dryness and warmth. There is a distinct fruitiness of caramel apple slices, and pears. On the finish lies a warm spiciness of sweet licorice, cinnamon and toffee capping things off before a short fade of warm dry nuttiness moves in.

M: medium-bodied, and syrup like, very smooth and slick texture wise with very little if any carbonation being detected.

D: fairly good, but wouldn't venture to have more then one at any given sitting. Sweet, spicy and fruity with a big showing of caramel chew sweetness limits this to a single serving. Worthy of a try.

Had on tap at the Moan and Dove. The drink had a light brown color with a tall head. Aromas had a faint chocolate smell with a nutty tone. The drink was decently sweet but had a somewhat off bitter aftertaste. The drink had a light body with a really crisp carbonation actually. Overall, not too bad.

Poured this amberish brown colored beer into a pint glass. The head comes out at a good amount that reduces down to thin lacing. There is a good nutty, caramel aromas that great the nose. As the taste degresses it becomes less flavorful taste. Overall a good start but comes to a poor ending.

Poured from a 500ml bottle with what appears to be a coded date on the back label into a pint glass. ABV of 6%. Barely had any head and that quickly dissipated to a thin film. It had a brownish amber color with a little carbonation. The smell overall was pretty weak especially as it warmed. Roasted malt but way in the background. The mouthfeel was pretty watery even for a brown ale. The taste was just average and considering the price it was a disappointment. Had a very bitter aftertaste that I wasn't expecting. There has been a lot of hype about these beers due to the labeling controversy. It suckered me in as I probably wouldn't have bought otherwise so props to their marketing department but don't be fooled. Don't recommend unless you are just wanting to check off list. (3, RB, ML, O)

Now Called "Warm Winter Welcome", $4.99 at Hollingshead Deli in March 2007, tasted in early May of the same year.

Pours a good looking brown, with very nice ruby highlights. Minimal head and no carbonation.

Aroma is light, common of the style. Lightly roasted grains. Flavor is a nice, very standard brown ale. An easy drinker, flavor is mostly roasted malts and nuts with a slight hop tang at the end keeps it from being boring. Some creaminess when swished in the mouth. Nothing outstanding, but good and goes down easily.

Flavor: Roasty and nutty malt balanced nicely by mild herbal hops. There's a little spice and dark fruit added in (especially as it warms), but it's ultimately rather straightforward with less depth than was promised in the nose. Leafy hops and biscuity malt in the finish.

Mouthfeel: Medium bodied and smooth with medium carbonation. Dries a little in the finish.

Drinkability: Easily drinkable, this is something you could easily session on a winter's eve with the family. That is, if there was more than one in a pack.

Verdict: Generally unexciting, Warm Welcome would probably benefit greatly from a little more intensity and character. That being said, this is better than I had expected and I'm looking forward to seeing how the other beers in this pack fare.

Thanks to Ding for sending this one up my way, along with some "proper" glassware to use with it! I put this one right in the fridge and decided to open it up last night for dinner, as I had really wanted something nice, and a brown ale will always fit this bill!

Appearance - The pour was rather unremarkable, with a crystal clear, honey tinted brown that appeared before me. Really no lace to speak of, which went along with the minimal head that had formed on the top of it. Nice carbonation through coming up from the bottom, the color was nice and now that I think about it, reddish hints throughout as well.

Smell - The aroma was very sweet and nutty. Very nice indeed, with hints of almonds, and pecans, some nice light citrus and a hint of earthy like tones. Really quite interesting. Not your typical winter warmer type of smell for sure. Lots of toffee and caramel in here as well, very interesting.

Taste - The flavor was excellent as well. The first wave to hit me was a sweet toffee like flavor, very rich and sweet with lots f pecans, walnut like flavors riddled throughout. There was a nice little bit of sweetness in the middle, like caramel or so, before turning it over to a nice little bit of a twang in the finish, Very interesting again. There was a touch of bitterness in there, and definitely some light citrus notes, even what taste like dandelion or clover.

Mouthfeel - A bit on the thin side I have to say, it did come across a bit too thin. It was watery, but not in the flavor profile, more in the overall feel. I just through it would be a little bit bigger here to be honest.

Drinkability - An outstanding session ale. I found myself going through this one way too quickly. Very nice light profile with a good amount of nut and fruit like flavors. Nice light ABV, a good solid drinker here.

Overall, this was actually very good, and my favorite of the Ridgeway beers that I have had. A nice traditional English ale, I really did enjoy this. I am going to have to try more in the style to find some more that I like. Its not a boring style, by all means, I think it's just hard for us to get the good ones over here.